Hope in the deep
by Hector Flores
Summary: Kirito tried to runaway from the real world, since he found out the truth, that his parents were actually his aunt and uncle, that his real parents were dead and buried. In the game of Sword Art Online, he found a new sort of family but he would one day form a family of his own.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Sword Art Online in any format, this is a fan fiction

The truth hit Kazuto like a ton of bricks, he had been living with his aunt the entire time, and this family had been lying to him the entire time. He had to find out by making his own computer and earning his own money by making money by filling forms for a local computer company, he actually was one of the best employees that the company ever had, and as he continues to work he earned a lot of respect from the people of the company._**  
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As a gift for the long hours he placed he was given a very special nerve gear, this one did not need to be wired or to be connected to an outlet or be recharged, it was said the thing was made by the creator of the nerve gear thinking that this would allow people to play longer, but the thing was too expensive to mass produce so it sat on a shelf right next to another one just like it.

The owner of the company gave it to him, with the blessings of its creator, Kayaba Akihiko. He was so happy to receive it, Kirito was a major fan of the way Kayaba did his programming and his development of the nerve gear. When he announce to the world that he was making the first ever true virtual MMO, Kirito made a deal with the owner of the company, he said that he would work for free for a month if he gave him a copy of the game and access to it as soon as it was ready.

For the owner it was a pretty nice deal, he would save a lot of money and the game would be practically free for him since his company made it. As the month finally came to an end Akihiko himself presented him with his copy of the game. It was going to be launched and he would be one of the 100 beta testers, he told the company owner that he would spend as much time as he could, and try to find all the bugs in it so that the game would be a success.

Kirito was the name of the character he made, and Kirito was known to be one of the most ruthless fighters during the beta, he managed to clear 90 floors of the 100-floor castle. His family worried that he was spending too much time in the game, and too little time taking care of himself. But as the month long beta was coming to an end, he met someone he never expected to meet, a golden dragon, and the dragon talked to him.

"You love this place, don't you invader. You enjoy being in our world so much you hardly leave it, So why don't you become a resident of this world and be happy? I can give you that chance but the only thing you need to do is to manage to touch the top of my head. But I will not make it easy for you, I will evade all the time, so are you up for it?"

Kirito was an expert swordsman, he could use any sword, be it double handed to single-handed, from using only one hand to dual wielding a pair of swords. He took on the challenge and after three long days he won, and that was when the dragon kissed him on the forehead. Where the dragon kissed him a crest appeared and a light wrapped around him and finally when it stopped Kirito was fast asleep, inside a massive egg.

The dragon was named Alicia, and she had done something not one of her kind ever tried before, she adopted him as her own son. In the real world Kazuto went into a deep comma, nothing the doctors tried could wake him. The company told them that they would pay for his hospital and medical bills, it was the least they could do, for their most respected employee.

In the game, Kirito forgot about his life before, and he was born from the egg as a small dragon, and he and his mother lived together. Alicia was a very caring, and supportive parent, with her he learned to take a human form to be able to be in the towns and not scare the people, or cause one of the invaders to try and challenge him for a few scales of his body.

Within monster, society was a position of honor and that was to be in the castle guard for the red king, no one saw him or even talked to him, but he had his ways to make sure the people that served him knew exactly what he wanted, and his word was law. Kirito ended as a low squire and in less than a year he managed to be the Commander of the castle guard, and the best warrior to serve the red king.

The black knight was the right-hand man of the Red King, and everyone in the castle knew two truths. The first was that the Black Knight did not appear unless there was a problem that had angered the Red King enough that he wanted this person to suffer the consequences of his actions, and the second truth was if you decided to fight against the Black Knight he would show you no mercy, and it would end in your death.

The Black knight was his chief of the guard, his enforcer of his laws, and the one to pursue criminal bosses that believed that they could do whatever they wished, and the King would never notice, the Red King would always notice. Case in point there was this criminal group that tried to get money from the merchants in the many commerce districts on the higher floor towns.

They threaten them with everything from ruining their reputation to actually causing physical harm to their loved ones. When the Red King found out that someone was extorting the merchants of five towns, on the higher floors of the castle. He screamed for the Black Knight to do something about it, or so help the castle he would, and everyone that was even slightly connected to this criminals would die.

Kirito in his black armor, you could not even see his eyes, the whole armor had an almost intimidating feel over it, and he used it with great precision. He walked towards the merchants that were being threatened and he demanded to know who was demanding money for protection from harm, that he threatened to cause. One merchant knew the identity of the criminal boss, but he did not want to say who it was, it was his brother in law after all.

Kirito was not going to take a no for an answer so he took out his sword and put it on the man's kitchen table. "Refusal to answer is high treason, and the punishment for high treason is the death of everyone in the family of the traitor, so let's try this once more. Who is the scumbag who is threatening the merchants in this town and the towns on the floor about this one and below?"

The man did not want to say who it was and at this time his own daughter arrived from the market with some groceries. Kirito saw that he needed to make sure the point was well understood and that he was not kidding around. With his sword in hand he pointed at the man's daughter and held his sword ready to strike and as the sword came down, the man screamed that it was his brother in law, his wife also came and could not believe it, her brother was the one that was threatening the business on their town.

He put away his sword and walked away without saying a word, but the woman begged him to at least listen to her brother before punishing him, that he must have a good reason, her brother was a kind man, there must be something that forced him to do that. "There is no worse case of blindness, than the person who refuses to see."

He walked into her brother's house and kicked the door open. It was clear that the man was drinking heavily. "Black Knight, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, come right in. Join me for a friendly drink, relax." Kirito told him that he knew that he was the crook demanding money from the merchants. "So one of these worms, finally grew a backbone, true I demanded money or I would make them see hell, so what of it? I am not sorry one bit, and there is nothing that you can do to make me stop, as soon as I find the snitch I will kill him and his whole stinking family."

Kirito told him if that included his own sister? That was when he ordered his thugs to come out of hiding, it was clear he hoped for him to accept the drink, which was no doubt poisoned, and the thugs would kill him, if his thugs could kill the best warrior in the castle, there would be no one that would resist him and he could get money from the rest of the towns in the castle.

A psychologist and a psychiatrist began to think about the real reason why this patient did not even try to wake up, no matter how much they tried to wake him, one made a mistake of trying to remove the nerve gear, but his heart rate began to drop at an incredible rate, it was a miracle that they managed to put it back on him. One said that maybe, just maybe he actually loved the other world a whole lot more than he did the one he was born in, that he would actually consider that one deep down to be his real world and this place was just a place in a dream.

The doctor looked at him and he said that that would mean he had more reasons for being over there and returning to the real world, and that made no sense, a kid his age was bound to have friends, a girlfriend or even relatives that he would miss, there was no way he was that detached from the real world. His aunt heard him and she began to cry, as he stopped crying she began to say, that it was true, his real parents were dead, and she had been lying to him his entire life. Maybe he was happier in that world, but it also means that she would never be able to apologize for the way she lied to him.

The doctors told her that she did what most wouldn't even consider doing, most people would just let the kid be taken by the government operated an orphanage and let the kid end up in an unknown home, it was not her kid or her responsibility. So what she did was merciful and kind so it was just a matter of explaining to the kid, that she did it not to traumatize him, and that he would feel like she felt, like he was a member of the family.

Kirito continues his position of the leader of the castle guard all the way until the end of the Beta and beyond it, it was only until the official launch that the Red King, ordered him to join with the invaders, and watched them closely, that he was now except the morality system, so if he saw anyone or knew of anyone through his investigation that had killed anyone in the castle, he was permitted to end that invader's life. The Red King told him that as far as they would know he would always be a green player.

When he asked what a player is? The Red King laughed and told him that was what the invaders called themselves, they actually believed the castle was a game. "But who will take care of our normal security, your majesty?" The Red King told him not to worry he actually managed to train his subordinates rather well. So there was nothing to worry about, hearing that made Kirito relax and asked if he could at least see his mother a few times, The King smiled and told him that he could use the secret path in the tower.

With a move of his hand, the King changed the look of Kirito's armor to make it look like what other players would wear, but he was still dressed in all black. "Now my Black Knight, ensure that my castle is murderer free, and let them fear the consequences of killing anyone in my castle. But you must know that you must not reveal your true identity to anyone, your subordinate will take the role of the Black Knight"

He was sent to the town where the other players would appear at the start of their adventures. The town was no different from every other day for him, but the day in the other world launched the game, Kirito had to pretend to be just a normal Beta, for everyone around him this was an exciting new world they were entering for Kirito it was just another day in the flying castle Aincrad.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own Sword Art Online in any format, this is a fan fiction

At first it felt weird to pretend to be yet another of these so called players. But as the day finally came he got used to it, to the point that he did act like a regular player. As the day came he was walking towards his favorite gear maintenance shop. The owner was an old friend of his, so he pretty much took care of his gear for an almost unbelievable low price, and it was because Kirito actually stopped a band of criminals from using his daughter to get money from him.

They basically promised the young woman a job, and the job was pretty easy, it was to walk around and hand out fliers to all the people in a plaza. But the thing is the fliers were fake, and they actually sent a letter to her father, the shop owner, that if he did not send an incredible amount of money, they would actually rape, and kill his child. Kirito was visiting the shop as the Black Knight to get some of his own armor repaired.

When he took his helm and armor off to ask for it to be repaired, the shop owner asked him to help him out, and he would actually pay him to rescue his daughter from the criminals that had pretty much tricked her. This all fell within the confines of his regular duties, so he agreed to help. He immediately sent out a call to all his subordinates to surround the plaza and do not let anyone in or out. His right hand man took charge and did as his leader commanded.

As the plaza was supposed to have more people at that time of day, but she was all alone. A man presented himself as Shiro and he told her he was the apprentice and right hand man of the Black Knight, that she was actually tricked by the group and that they planned to do harm to her father. He asked her where did the group usually meet. She was furious at what she heard and told him exactly the place and time that she would go to get more of the fake fliers.

Shiro sent the information to Kirito who walked into the building and waited to see the crooks, he would pretend to be the man with the money from the shop owner, and he did just that, and when the crooks were practically salivating over the amount of money they were going to get without anyone being the wiser, he took out both of his one handed swords, and attacked the entire group. There were no survivors, Kirito hated murderers and that was true, but for them to say they planned to rape her first, that pretty much sealed their fate.

As Shiro saw his leader and could tell what had happened, he asked if it would be alright with the Red King, and he told his student that it would be fine, he actually found a book full of pictures of other women who they had raped and killed. "The scum were murderers and rapist, his majesty will not even considered them people." Kirito took over and told his men to return to their regular patrols.

As he walked with the shop owner's daughter close to him, he saw her father run towards them, happy that his daughter was safe and that the criminals did no harm to her. He then asked the Black Knight how much did he owe him, and that was when Kirito told him that he owed him nothing at all. It was all part of his duty, and thus he owed him no money at all. That was the moment that the shop owner, and Kirito became friends.

"Say Kirito what are you going to do now?" He looked at the man and told him that he was not to disclose his past with any of the invaders. "You can trust me, I will use the generic dialog every shop owner like myself uses. They can't even tell the difference between one shop owner and the next." Kirito thanked him for keeping his secret. "Thanks for everything Leo, I don't think I would have gotten used to this without you and Luna."

"Think nothing of it, what are friends for." Kirito walked towards one of the fields and that was when a young man shouted for him to stop. He did and waited for the young man to catch up with him. "You seem to know you way around, are you one of the Betas?" Kirito told him that he indeed was. "Look, man. I am new to this game and I have no clue how thing work, how about you teach me the basics?"

Kirito had nothing better to do so he agreed to teach him the basics. "First you hold your weapon in th initial motion of an attack and hold it, let the blade glow, and when it pulses let the attack happen, and as long as you do that you don't need to worry about aiming your strike." The young man simply did not seem to grasp the idea, so he picked up a rock and he began the motion for an attack, the stone glowed and then it flashed and as it finished it went flying and it hit a boar right on his rear end, making the monster simply furious.

He charged at Kirito who held him in place with his own sword. Seeing it in action the young man did as he saw it, and true enough he killed the boar in a single hit, he got some exp and some col. He was really happy but then he asked why so little? Kirito had to ask what did he think he killed? The guy told him a mid level boss. "No, that was a boar, they are the weakest monster there is on this game."

"I am Kirito, and you are?" The young man got up on his feet, and rubbed the back of his head, "I am Klein, sorry I forgot to introduce myself with all the excitement." Kirito told him that it was no problem at all. He asked if he wanted to continue hunting? Klein wanting more tips agreed on the spot. "Thanks, Kirito thanks to you I will be able to help my friends too. But mind telling me what you think of this world?"

"This is a world that is so beautiful, that it can make you forget it's dangerous, a place where a single blade can take you as far as you desire." Klein told him that he sounded like he loved the castle for some odd reason, it was just an online game. "You feel like that for now, but if you think of it as a new life, you will find a lot more enjoyment from this place. This castle is alive, with people, animals, merchants, and sadly even criminals."

"So Kirito how far did you make it during the beta?" Kirito looked at him with an almost surprised look on his face. "Not that far, I only reached the 89th floor. I don't even know how far the other beta's reached." Klein could not believe what he heard. Klein was a reporter for a very popular MMO magazine, and if he saying was true. Kirito had explored more of the castle than any other beta.

"What made you play a virtual game for so long, that you reached higher than any other beta?" Kirito remembered the story that the Red King told him to use to explain his past. He used the part that he needed and answered. "A really lousy home and a family that every word that came out of their mouth, was either a lie or something close to a lie." Klein was not what anyone would call cold, but even him found the story a bit hard to swallow.

"So let me get this straigth, your parents told you a few white lies, and you instead of hearing them out, you played vr games for hours on end?" Kirito told him he had no parents at all. That was the very first lie his aunt told him. "What would you do if your entire life was based on one ever expanding lie?"

Klein had to admit he had no answer or clue how he would respond. "So for you this is a game, but to me this castle is both my home and my world.I had no life over in your world, so I made one here." Klein told him he might actually consider getting some counseling. Just as Klein was about to log off he looked rather upset.

He began to try and pulled down the main menu and looking for the log off button, and it simply was not there. When he tried a few times he asked Kirito to try and log out. Kirito knew very well that there was no log off button on any menu screen. But he could not reveal this information, since the Red King ordered him to keep it a secret,unless it was to save his own life.

He did the only thing he could, pretend that he was also taken by surprise. Just as they were talking about the possibility of it being a bug, they heard a large bell ring and were forcefully transported to the main plaza.

"Kirito, do you have any idea why we teleported here!?" Kirito told him that it was a forced teleportation, someone must have something real important to say, maybe it was about the log out button bug. Klein began to look around to see if anyone he knew was nearby, he saw his friends from his old guild, the one he had on a different mmo.

Kirito pointed to the red stain on the ceiling that normally was not visible through the clouds. He grabbed Klein shoulder and tried to get his attention. They both saw as the stain began to grow and drip almost like it was blood. The red mass took the form of a faceless game master. The game masters were normally support staff and they either looked like a wise old man, or a mature lady wearing glasses. This was not the case here.

"Greetings, and welcome to my world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko, I created both the nerve gear and this world. Many of you are worried because you can not find the log out key on your menu settings. I will tell you that is no bug, the menu system was never meant to have such a key in the first place."

This made a large group of players completely freak. Some screamed that they had other things to do, others that they would not be able to attend their classes. Kayaba waited for everyone to just let out all their complaints before he continued.

"Also, there is no ressurection system, meaning if you health reaches zero you will die. At that point a strong electromagnetic signal will be transmitted through the nerve gear destroying your brain and ending you life in the real world."

Well if the fact they could not log out freaked out, you can imagine what their reaction to this was, the most mature and calmed player screamed obscenities that would make the most bad mouthed sailor blush.

"As to why would I do this, it's quite simple I wanted to create a world as real as possible. You could almost say that everyone present here has been reborn here in this world, do not fret all media outlets have been informed of the consequences of removing, tampering or breaking the nerve gear."

No one said a thing, they found the situation to be ridiculous. Some even tried to leave the plaza to find that the exits were blocked by invisible walls.

"Sadly, not everyone heeded my warning, and as of right now 150 players have died, due to outside interference. But worry not it's not all bad news. Medical teams have been sent to your homes and your bodies taken to nearby hospitals, that will ensure your real bodies receive all necessary care and your you nerve gears have a constant supply of energy."

"Now the only thing you need to do is clear all 100 floors of this castle. When someone clears the las floor and defeats the final floor boss, every player will be logged out. Since this is sort of a birthday I have included a present in your inventory."

Everyone looked and found a mirror. In a flash of light everyone changed shapes as to what their real world bodies looked like, well all except Kirito, since he already looked like that, they light did show but he did not change like the other players. Some players had made female avatars while being guys, and pretending to date other players, and vice versa.

"This concludes the initial tutorial of Sword Art Online, and again welcome to the flying castle Aincrad, and enjoy you life in my world."

Kirito knew that obtaining resources was going to be a real battle, he tried to explain to Klein that they needed to leave now and head over to the next town. Klein told him that he couldn't he had old friends in the plaza and he could not simply abandoned them.

Kirito told him that making it to the next town with an extra person was going to be difficult, with a group of beginners was almost impossible. Klein told him not to worry, that thanks to his training he will teach the others what he learned from him.

Kirito began to walk towards the exit of the plaza and there he found a scared young lady, she was so scared that she screamed when he tried to get her attention, "I am Kirito, if you want live come with me. I will teach you all I know on how to survive this place."

She must have been happy to hear that, since she thanked him and hugged him. "Thank you for your kindness, Kirito. My name is Asuna. I will be under your care till you no longer wish my company." Kirito took her to a nearby shop who was owned by one of his friends, they got new gear for her and plenty of potion and ingredients.

Thus began the adventure of Kirito and Asuna, at the start they were complete strangers but many years later they would always laugh about their first meeting. But for now let's see how much Asuna can learn from Kirito and he will learn thanks to her.


	3. Chapter 3

This in only a fan fiction, I do not own Sword Art Online in any format.

Life can be strange, take turn and directions you would never expect. If you told Kiri to that he was going to be a player, and teach a lady player how to fight and survive in this flying castle, he would have asked you to go to a healer, because you would clearly be either sick or insane. As far as Kiri to could remember Aincrad was his home, born and raised by his loving mother and one young sister. But here he was explaining Asuna the basic training regiment of a foot soldier in the Royal guard.

"As I was telling you training your skills is one thing, train your body as well. Training is the way of life for warriors like us. Grow to overconfident, or underestimate an enemy and you are as good as dead." Asuna understood that what she didn't understand is, why was she using skills at imaginary targets.

"Practice makes perfect, a few hundred feet from here is a hidden dungeon, it is called the duality dungeon, and it is not on any map. We will get our one and only weapon there, it will save us a small fortune in the long run." Asuna stopped her last attack and looked at Kirito. "You must be a beta, well what so especial about the dungeon?" Kirito to finished his last attack and told her to sit down.

"There are two dungeons in one, you do them back to back. Meaning you do one going in,and as soon as it finishes the other starts in the way out. The first is the black sword, the other is called the white shield. In the first, you must defeat 100 enemies so that the boss appears. The boss fights a duel with you. The other you must defend against 100 attacks, the boss will then ask you a question."

Asuna understood then that the weapons were the reward from each boss. The reason he had them use skills that they found comfortable, was maybe because the weapon the boss gave depend on what skills were used most. "Couldn't someone kill us and steal the weapons, they must sell for a lot of col," Kirito told her that these weapons were living weapons, they grew stronger as the user did, and no they could never sell them, because they would always return to the user, if they took one and ran, the weapon would return to his chosen warrior, or be destroyed when said warrior died.

"The test is harsh because these weapons are capable of being the strongest, and because they are loyal to their warrior. A true friend in any battle." Asuna asked why they were waiting, he told her that they were already at the entrance. They were just waiting for it to open. She then saw as the sun went down in the horizon, and as the last rays shown they hit the wall on the raised platform behind them With a big release of wind the door opened.

They both walked into the door and it slammed shut. Then they saw a hundred sword-wielding skeletons. They were all running towards them in a long corridor, the only light came from the torches in the walls. Kirito calmly walked and with Asuna they began to defeat the monsters. Each time they defeated a monster the door on the other end of the corridor began to open. It had a symbol of a skull with two swords right below the chin.

Little by little they fought the skeletons and walked to the slowly opening door. The skeletons did not stop even as they saw their kind die. It was almost as if the skeletons wanted to die. As they reached the door the last skeleton died and the door opened. They walked inside, and the room had one small desk, with a man sitting in a very comfortable chair.

"You sure took your sweet time getting here, Hel was getting mighty lonely without you. But I will not simply give her back you must take her back from me." Asuna did not understand why the monster was talking, a language she could understand. He was a tall muscular man, wearing black rusted armor, the helm looked like a human skull.

"Sorry for the wait, Loki. But you know I would come and get her." The monster began to laugh, and in a gesture he made the duel challenge notice appear before Kirito. The room changed to a large open area as soon as he accepted. The duel was a first strike duel. The two fought with everything they had, Loki even threw dirt hoping to blind Kirito. But sure enough, as he threw the dirt Kirito threw a small rock knocking the sword out of his opponent's hand. He was declared a winner as he hit him with his sword.

"That was pretty low of you, Loki. But I guess I am one to talk. Don't worry I plan to make your little girl, get to fight a lot more than last time." Asuna asked who was Kirito talking about. Loki explained that Kirito had been the only one to find his hidden dungeon. He told her that he created just three living weapons. He'll, Fenrir and Jormungand. Hel was an ever transforming blade, Fenrir was a large hammer that too could change shape, Jormungand is a whip that could burn through anything.

The blade looked pretty happy to be held by Kirito. The best friend a swordsman could ever ask for. "Now you just need to signal that the second part can begin. I just hope you didn't do anything to upset Freya. I remember how mad she can get." Loki laughed and pushed a stone and told him, that if he still remembered then this next part shouldn't be that much of a surprise.

Sure enough, a hundred archers were ready for him. As the two began to walk towards the exit, Kirito heard the first arrowhead straight towards Asuna. With a regular sword he was a magnificent swordsman, with Hel he was a force to be feared by his enemies, the sword split in two and became two magnificent blades. With a sword in each hand, he struck down the arrow. Asuna also tried to strike down one, but it simply was too fast, this made her ask the obvious question, "What level are you?"

Kirito took down another arrow, and began to think really hard about the answer, they were half way to the exit, and he decided to hell with it, he was going, to tell the truth, or at least about his level, "I'm not that high, my level is 78." Asuna was taken by surprise, he was 74 levels higher than her. "So since we formed the party, how much XP points have you gained from us defeating monsters?" Kirito did not answer just made a hand sign that said it all. A big fat zero.

He struck down the last arrow, and she checked her status display, she had gained three level in the corridor. A very beautiful knight showed up and did not look at all happy to see him. "So happy to see you, Freya. But those were more than 100 arrows. I would expect that from Loki, but never you." She simply had to double the number of arrows, since he was the only one actually managing to do anything against them. Kirito told her that his friend was not that high in level, that it would be unfair to think she could do something that took him a full day to figure out.

"All the excuses in the world and that is the best you could come up with?" Asuna asked if there was any personal reason that she was so harsh on him. Freya actually smiled as she said that. She indeed has a very personal reason and the cause of her anger just asked her to know that very reason. Freya simply smiled, and while trying to look calm she answered. "Truth be told, I was expecting Kirito to solo this dungeon like he did last time. I even made this special armor set for him, but now that there are two completing this dungeon, well it pretty much means I will not get to give him the armor, instead I will have to give you my weapon if you answer my question."

"I don't want to waste time, so go ahead and ask." Freya could simply consider her reaction, the impatience of youth, or she didn't like her surroundings. "What walks on four in the morning, two in the afternoon and three in the evening?" Asuna didn't even need to think about it, she answered man. Freya laughed as it was just an icebreaker question, to get her more relaxed. "It is the most precious treasure, even when found it does not last, what is it?" Asuna told her that she already answered her first question, but she would answer again. The answer was love.

Freya liked her answers and she took something from her belt and threw it at her. It was a rapier. A simply beautiful blade, Freya told her name was Urd. She looked hard at Kirito and smiled to see that Hel had changed to her standard form. She thanked her for the weapon, and when she has close she has pulled closer before she could even blink the hug was over. She did not understand why would Freya do that, till she saw her saying the words to check her items later. I guess it was useful that Asuna could read lips.

The two went to a nearby hunting field to let Asuna get used to her new sword. Hel had decided to talk with Kirito in spirit form. "Any reason you are so willing to help he?" Kirito told her that much against his better judgment, he was ordered to live as a player, having her nearby made it easier for him to blend in, he also told her that some of these players or invaders engaged in not-sanctioned murder and the Red King wanted these disrespectful killers dealt with.

"Kirito, who are talking to? I have been trying to get your attention for a good ten minutes." Rats, Kirito knew he forgot to tell Asuna something. Might as well teach her, and let those two start a friendship now or pay the consequences later. He told her to follow him to a rest area and told her to sit down."Unlike normal weapons, living weapons have a spirit and personality like us. Now take your blade hold it where you can see it, and greet her, just like you would me."

Asuna did so and the spirit of her rapier appeared a very exotically dressed lady, with a really good figure but her hair was two colors, most were black but had a streak of white to one side of her hair. "Took you long enough, How many times do I have to scream, I am no good with slashing moves. Pierce, stab, poke, which ever you prefer but no slashing." Kirito told Asuna that forging a friendship with her blade would make her stronger. She asked if anyone else could see Urd. He told her they could if she told her materialization words, or if she needed to save her friend's life.

She asked if she could meet Hel. Kirito told her that she was shy, in truth she wanted to see her in action and maybe get used to working with her own blade first, deep down she did not want to be pestered for gossip about Kirito and what he had done before meeting her. Those times were precious to her, and so she wanted to keep them private, Kirito was the only one that had ever been kind to her after all.


	4. Chapter 4

I do not own Sword Art Online in any format, this is fan fiction

Poorly written fan fiction at that, but still I hope some of you enjoy it.

Kirito was getting down right tired of waiting for the players to get over their pity parties and do something to solve their situation. Kirito was having a very nice meal with Asuna at a local dinner. The owner knew Kirito quite well, and often gave him a discount on his meals. The man was the retired captain of the Royal Guard and Kirito's former mentor. The red haired waitress was his daughter and she still had a bit of a crush on the once feared Black Knight.

Kirito was explaining to Asuna, that these people needed to be more organized, that they needed to get serious about clearing floors, after two months and the way to the second floor was still closed off. Some references to getting their act together, stop moping around, and grow a backbone were mentioned here and there, Asuna simply told him that they were a whole lot lower at a level that he was, he simply answered that comment by calling them excuses of the lazy.

"Asuna, I started at level one, just like everyone else. I just put in the time and effort to level up, and do so in a safe, efficient manner. But I guess I was expecting too much from them, they just want to sit on their behinds and let someone else save them. I guess that someone is going to need to show them that it can be done." Asuna finished her cup of juice and got up from the table, "And that someone is us. You know where the boss room is?"

He told her he knew the general area where it was, it could have changed locations, from his Beta days. They paid for their meal and decided to walk towards the place the boss room was during the Beta. They had to do over a dozen quests, killed enough monsters to even the most avid hunter green with envy. The pelts and bones fetched a decent price by blacksmiths and tailors.

"Kirito, don't you think we should tell others where the boss room was during your time as a Beta?" Kirito felt bad about continuing to lie to Asuna if he told her the truth however he would be disobeying a direct order from the Red King. He knew very well where the first-floor boss was, he was his oldest friend and even went to the party to celebrate his promotion to floor boss. How could he forget? He got so stinking drunk that his mother was mad as all hell when he finally got home.

Even if he wanted to tell her how would he do it, 'Asuna, know so much about this place because I was born here, oh and by the way, I am a fire breathing dragon, so if you need to start a campfire or roast something, I am the guy to ask.' If Kirito said that several things were more than likely going to happen. First, she would think that he was insane, second when she figured that he was telling the truth, she either would never speak or be in the same party ever again, or try to kill him for XP points. None of these outcomes seem desirable by any stretch of the imagination.

"Asuna we can take care of this on our own, why would you want to involve a band of weaklings? You know that we would have to do most of the fighting, and waste precious resources just keeping them alive. And for what? They will take all the credit, gain a lot of XP and cost us to use most if our healing crystals, and they will not even be grateful." Asuna told him that they will try and say that they were only out for their own glory. Kirito simply looked at her and while holding her hand he said that he didn't care at all. The pot calling the kettle black. These people will always think they were as selfish as themselves.

Asuna knew that Kirito was right, but it sure didn't feel good. There was only so much they could do alone. "Kirito at some point we are going to either have to join a guild or make one ourselves. Since we will need to train pretty hard, why not make our guild and base it on an honor principal." Kirito had nothing against it. "So what would we call this guild?" Asuna said that all members would make a blood oath of loyalty to the guild. "A blood oath. So I guess that would make us the Knights of the Blood Oath." Asuna loved the name.

Well all that was well and good, but they still need to make a name for themselves, to prove their worth with their might. "So until we register our name, we will do everything alone. The boss room should be close by..." Sure enough, the boss room door was in front of them in all it's horrific glory. To call the thing a door was being generous, it would scare just about anyone. They both pushed the large stone door, trying not to touch the sinister looking carving on it.

Kirito had a real tough time, keeping himself from laughing. He almost felt that he cracked a rib. The boss was a giant monster by the title of The Kobold King. In truth, this guy was once a guy who loved to cook, and grow flowers. He was having a hard time not laughing because the last time he saw him, he had a frying pan and wooden spatula, and was wearing a yellow flowery apron. The boss was smiling when he saw Asuna so close to Kirito. If he could he would tease his old friend about finally getting himself a girlfriend.

Hel seemed to sense that and was glowing bright red, she was really angry. Asuna took care of the kobold guards, who in truth were waitresses in his friend's restaurant. The fight between the two and the boss did not take long. Hel had the pleasure of delivering the final blow, and thus Kirito won the right to pick his bonus item, he picked a nice scabbard for Hel, he was already wearing very good armor already. But Hel told him to instead pick up an armor for Asuna, her survival would mean his own as well, and that was more important to her than her own comfort.

Asuna was quite happy to accept the armor, it nearly doubled her defense points. At the same time in the town square, a group of players was discussing where the first-floor boss was, and how to locate the boss room. The meeting was going nowhere since a real crook by the name of Kibaou demanded that all Betas give up all their col and items, but as soon as he finished saying his demand, there was a system announcement.

"Floor one boss has been defeated, by a party under the name of Knights of the Blood Oath, portal to floor two is now open." The message repeated several times before Kibaou reacted in a very expected way. He began screaming a long string of swear words, it was simply embarrassing to see him throw such a tantrum. "So let me get this straight, while we spent our time arguing what to do, some group got their act together and decided to outright beat the first-floor boss. Then they went on their way, they even have a guild name planned out. I don't know about you, but I am joining that guild as soon as it is registered. These guys clearly don't mess around."

On the second floor Kirito finally decided to rent a small house, it was cheaper that staying in an inn in the long run. He did decide also to visit his old friend, he told Asuna that he needed to do something alone. That gave her the chance to try and get to know Urd a little better. As soon as he was near a reflective surface he used the passphrase. The way to the supposed monster side of Aincrad opened. As soon as he stepped through he went to look for his friend's cafe.

"You are rather mean, Kirito. I don't mind losing but that final blow was a low blow for you." Kirito was quick to remind him, that he had said that in love and war anything was fair. The guy did not like to remind of that fact, he wanted to get even and asked him if he could still breath fire, or did he forget how to do that. Kirito decided to teach his old friend once again, the reason why you should never make fun of a dragon. He took a deep breath and it was only because one of his waitresses warned him, that the Kirito's old friend did not end up as roasted as a turkey dinner.

The guy simply held his largest frying pan and deflected the fire straight into his oven. The crowd loved the little display. "Thanks,Kirito my old oven has been growing colder lately. It sure is nice to have a friend like you around." He decided to pack him a full dinner for two and told him that he should visit his family, they probably missed him. Kirito thanked his old friend and decided to do just that. Hel was not happy at all, she could never get along his sister, and Kirito could never figure why.

When he walked towards his family's home, he soon realized that they made a few changes since he was last there. For one the ground entrance was no longer there, there was a small lake of molded lava around the entire estate and there were sentinel guards watching the property. It was clear that he needed to fly to get in. Chanting the words he learned from us mother he changed to that of his dragon form. The scales had a dark color to them, and his eyes were red as the color of rubies. He flew into the high entrance to his mother's room.

As he entered he changed back to his human form thanks to the glyphs on the walls. "I know I haven't been back lately, but this is a rather cold reception, especially with the trouble the newly added security caused me." A very beautiful young lady came into her room and hugged Kirito. " It could hardly be my fault or your sister's, we had too many attacks from the friends of the criminals you punished during your Black Knight days. But it is good to see that you are well, son."

"Mother, I am in terrible need of your advice, I have a problem that I need your opinion on. It is quite embarrassing, to say the least." The lady dragon told him to sit down and told his sister to wait in her den. It was clear that his sister was listening on their conversation from a hidden location, and it must be a good location since his detection abilities were second to none. "I will talk with you later, sister. I think we have much to discuss."

As soon as he was told that they could talk, he began to tell him that his current assignment had initially forced him to take a human as a party member, this helped him slowly become used to how these human invaders think, and react. But this created a small problem, the more time he spends with her, which is most of the day, he has been feeling emotionally interested in her, he began thinking of things that could make her feel happy and even noticed how she looked.

The lady dragon began to laugh and had a smile on her face, "So my eldest child has finally fallen in love. It was about time, so tell me what this potential mate of yours looks like?" Kirito could not stop blushing and stuttering, when he finally relaxed he began telling her about her skill with a blade, managing a budget, her cooking, and finally how she looked like. "Well my advice is quite simple, if you are sure you can trust her, and that she is also in love with you, You should tell her the truth, and bring her here, so I can finally meet the lady that managed to make my child fall in love."


	5. Chapter 5

I do not own Sword Art Online in any format, this is fan fiction.

Kirito for the first time in his life wished that Cardinal had actually not made that announcement, but then again when has she ever done anything that didn't end up causing him a headache. He could never figure what was the reason Cardinal loved to cause trouble for him. He just barely managed to return to his hotel room, only to find Asuna being chased by a group of players. "Stop chasing my friend and tell me what thus is about." The group told him that she said she was a member of the Knights of the Blood Oath, and there is no way she was an actual member. "She is the vice commander in fact. I should know."

"Really, the who the bloody hell are you supposed to be!?" Kirito did not like his tone but pretended he was calm. "I am Kirito and I am the commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath, I think you owe my second in command an apology." Some of the men flat out called him a liar, some other guy promised to let them join if they gave him half of their col when they did he used a crystal and teleported. "I would not ask for monetary donations to join us, all that wish to join must know that we maintain the peace and protect the innocent. We swear an oath on our life in blood of loyalty to one another till Senate free from this place."

"So that Kibaou was using your group's name to swindle us out of our hard-earned col." Kirito began to tell them of the harsh life it was to be a member, and if the training regiment recruits had to complete. Only those recruits that managed to complete the training could make the oath. "Our group is not for the light-hearted or slackers. But I would not demand something I do not demand of myself."

When he finished saying that, most of the people still didn't trust him, he could be a pretender and if they joined his guild, the real commander would seek to take retribution for believing a punk, even if a confident punk, pretended to be him, and they were dumb enough to believe him. Some others wanted to gun down Kibaou and get their col back or at least make him suffer.

"Well, you can sign me up. Name is Agil, I use an Axe and my business sense. I guess you might call me a merchant by trade." Kirito saw another player behind him. "I am Diabel, I was getting people together to try and beat the first-floor boss, but you beat us to the punch. I like the idea of being a knight, so sign me up as well." Asuna looked happy to that they had gained two new party members, the guild was one step closer to be an official guild.

Kirito began to teach them their training regiment. You could almost see the fear on Diabel's face. He was to train with Kirito and Agil with Asuna. Diabel tried to switch saying if he was truly comfortable leaving Asuna with the big muscular guy. "That won't be a problem, I am happily married. If anything she is safer with me than you." Diabel clearly wanted a chance to hit on Asuna, she, however, made it quite clear training first, social life later.

"And here I was thinking that you were the disciplinarian in this guild," Kirito told him they could talk while killing a few hundred monsters. Diabel after 100 monsters came to understand, Kirito was not a disciplinarian, he was the slave driver. After 200 they took a brief rest, Diabel was breathing pretty hard, Kirito did not even look winded. "So how come you are not tired?" Kirito looked at him and smiled, "With monster this low in level? You do realize you are the one getting all the XP points right?"

That made Diabel ask him some pretty common and expected questions. "So what level are you and how high did you reach in the Beta?" Kirito had a feeling that he would ask those questions, it was a good thing the Red King just happen to provide him with answers for such and many other questions. "78, and I got to that same floor during the Beta." Diabel seemed quite happy for some reason, for two actually. On the one hand, hr had s strong leader, and on the other, he must know where all those boss rooms where. He soon felt that last idea disappear. "But you know that they changed the locations of most floor boss rooms, but you should know that since you are a Beta too."

The rest of the day was spent killing monsters, in the end, he told Diabel exactly what he was doing wrong, and what he needed to do to correct it. Diabel also saw living proof of the strength and viciousness of their leader. As they walked back he asked him a hypothetical question. What would he do if he ever met a confirmed player killer? Diabel hoped he would say that he would send to prison, but that is not the answer he got. "Did you what I did to those monsters, right?" Diabel nodded his head. "Same thing I would do to the player killer, only I won't be as nice and friendly as I was with the monsters."

Diabel began to follow Kirito back to the agreed meeting point. "Kirito, if you kill a player killer, they will die for real?" Kirito did not answer until he was seated on a park bench, "The same applies to the victims, these killers killed players knowing that they were ending a person's life. If I see a player kill another and it was not in self-defense, I will kill that murderer and it will bother me less, than killing the monsters we just killed."

Diabel decided to switch topics since the current topic was a little too cruel for his liking. "What benefits does our training have?" Kirito looked at him and told him to sit down. "First we are slowly gathering the col needed to register our guild, and obtain a base if operations. Second, provides food, shelter and much-needed equipment and items, and on a personal level you are learning your limitations and to fight efficiently. You need to also learn to be aware of your surroundings. You didn't hear when Agil dropped his axe, or when Asuna was searching the bag she is carrying to see if she had enough food for our dinner."

Diabel was stunned and in a gesture to check, sure enough. Asuna had a bag that looked like had a few sandwiches, and Agil was breathing hard leaning against a wall and his axe was flat on the ground. 'He was explaining the value of our training, but he was also paying attention to what was happening all around us. Is he expecting an ambush? We are in a safe zone after all. So that means he is doing using his detection skills constantly.'

"I see you got dinner ready and gave Agil a nice workout. Any problems Azuna?" Asuna smiled and told him they found the boss room on their way back. "I guess that is why Agil looks like he ran all the way here." She pretty much wanted to go and clear the boss with Kirito and have Agil and Diabel wait in town. But Kirito told her that they could try and sneak in the boss room when they were not looking, and let's face it, they would lose the first two members if their guild, besides could she deal with the guilt of them dying because she rushed things?

Asuna told him that she simply wanted to be free of the death game she felt trapped in. "Instead of thinking it as a trap, why don't you think of it as you have a life here in this flying castle. It should make you feel better." It was something she never thought about, but he was right, train these two for the next floor, and when they were ready hit the floor boss on this floor with every member present like a good guild should.

It turns out Agil and Diabel did sneak off on their own, and thanks to them being quick learners they advanced a few levels on their own. Both Agil and Diabel wanted to be back with their loved ones just as much as anyone. The two teachers gave them a severe talking to not to take unnecessary risks, they both promised that they would be careful and follow their leader's example. Thanks to this, Kirito knew that they both had seen him go and solo a field on the previous floor.

Thanks to that mentality and dedication the two gained 10 levels in about a week of training and solo hunting. The entire guild did something that caught him by surprise, Asuna had made some new gear for them, and had his modified. It was now white with red highlights except for Kirito who was red with white highlights, she joked that he was liable to jump off Aincrad if he had to wear as much white as they did. This caused them to laugh, all except Kirito. This armor set was given by the Red King when he started this new mission, he wore black to remind him of his true role as the Black Knight.

"Asides from some new gear, after we finish with the next boss, we will go back to officially register our guild. But make no mistake this fight will be tough, I expect you all to survive to see the official start of our guild." Agil shouted that he was going to be there, no monster was going to stop him from being present for that. Diabel said that he would not dishonor his leader, teacher, and friend by dying to a lowly floor boss.

The group beat a lot of monsters on their way to the boss room. It was almost as if the floor boss knew that they were a threat and decided to put more monsters to make the way to his room that much tougher. The reason was quite clear when Kirito saw her. The floor boss had to be her of all people. She had been an old flame of Kirito, they broke up when he was appointed the Black Knight instead of her father. The demanding hours that his promotion, sort of made dating impossible, and now here he was going around with this female invader, eating her food, living practically under the same roof. To say she was mad would be like calling an ocean a pond.

"It is just me or did everyone feel the temperature of the boss room drop, and I mean a lot." The group had barely stepped into the boss room when Sigel just had to mention that. Kirito had a feeling who this floor boss was and as Agil finished saying that all the torches on the walls began to burn. There was a woman dressed in sky blue armor, holding a trident of all things. Kirito could not believe his bad luck, her hair was longer and done in a ponytail. Diabel simply stared at her chest and the sheer size of her breasts, she was an E cup easily.

Kirito told them to attack while the monster lady was focused on him. The strange thing to Asuna is that none of her minions were with her. But they wouldn't be for this fight since this was personal. 'So my old lover has found someone new!? Kirito is you that needy for female companionship that you have to shack up with an invader of all things!? Where is the proud dragon I once loved so!?'

"Guys is it me or does she seem solely focused on our esteemed leader?" Asuna yelled at Diabel that if he had time to mention the obvious, he should better spend that time attacking the boss, Kirito had told them to attack when her focus was on him. She explained that he was clearly pulling major aggro from the boss and should not waste this opportunity. The boss was defeated screaming things in a strange language at Kirito till she was defeated. 'For me to have to fight Emilia of all people, are all my old friend's floor bosses or just those that were once important to me.'


	6. Chapter 6

I do not own Sword Art Online in any format, this is fan fiction.

The group cleared the way to the next floor, and everyone in the group was very proud and happy that they won, except for Kirito it seems. No one could know or understand Emilia was his first lover, she had meant a lot for Kirito. The way she was constantly accusing him during the entire fight, however, was not even fair. The only reason Emilia and he broke up was because when Kirito finally had made enough money, he bought a beautiful engagement ring, and had asked her to marry him. Her reaction to that was not what you call romantic.

She took the ring and threw it so hard that it fell off Aincrad. Her reason was that a beautiful woman like her would not marry a lowly low ranking member of the royal guard. If she was to marry anyone, it had to be of sufficient status to match her beauty. This was partially the reason why he was so motivated to become the highest ranked member of the royal guard, and eventually became the Black Knight. To forever make her regret having broken his heart that way.

But in the fight, she intentionally forgot this detail and decided to put the entire blame on him. 'The situation would have been different had you accepted my proposal, so you have no right to complain about me being with anyone else.' He told the group to rent a couple of rooms and the training would continue tomorrow. When asked why to wait, he simply gave them two reasons. "People you just finished a fight with a floor boss, and I also need to see who can fix our gear for a good enough of a price."

The grow had time to rest which was quite welcomed by most members. Kirito did as he told them, he found a blacksmith to repair their gear for a very reasonable price. But in reality he had to also continue his own mission, he went to the public places waiting to hear of anyone being killed by another player. He almost did not believe it, that indeed there was a group doing that, but by all indications the group had just starters, they were not a guild as of yet. The only reason people even knew was the calling card they left at each murder scene, the picture of a smiling coffin, with a skeleton arm out almost like it was waving.

That was when he decided to pay a visit to the Iron Palace. There was a monument that recorded the players that died and the cause of death. The monument should have at the very least information on either the group or the player killer. So he went back and took a look at it and as soon as he got there, there were a few pushy guys trying to recruit anyone and everyone to a new group called the Aincrad Liberation Front. The guy simply would not leave Kirito alone.

"Look, like I told you already I am in a group already." The guy was not letting up he continued to try and recruit him till he got to the Iron Palace Monument. He was busy checking who players died using the sort feature. He found that the player killer had not taken credit for the killing, instead, he actually was registered as a member of a group calling themselves, "Laughing Coffin."

Knowing the name of the group he could start doing research on it. But the recruiter was not giving up, he simply was not that good at taking no for an answer. "OK, let's do this instead. We fight a duel, and I lose I quit my group, and join yours, but if I win the one to join my group will be you." The guy introduces himself as Godfrey, he told him his name was Kirito.

The duel was pretty simple since they were in a safe zone, first hit with unlimited time. Godfrey must have felt like he got lucky, by the way, he held nothing back, he hit him with everything he could just as the duel countdown ended signalling the start. He bashed his sword had enough to actually hit the blade off his hands and cause it to hit him. The duel was over and having lost he asked which group was he a member if? Kirito began to walk towards the portal and seeing that Godfrey was following he simply told him the Knights of the Blood Oath.

When he returned with the newest recruit the group were having lunch. "Greeting, Commander Kirito did you manage to obtain a blacksmith to repair out best?" Godfrey could not believe it, they really were the KoB that cleared the first two floors. To make matters worse the guy who recruited him, was the leader of the group. He then felt the very heartfelt need to apologize for the way he had behaved with him. Kirito was asking why the need for such a formal greeting, she figured that it would be a nice way to make a good impression on the new recruit.

"Sir, I would like to say I am sorry for the way I was treating you before." Kirito stopped him right there. "Godfrey, you are passionate in what you were doing, I trust that you will be passionate about your training and the things we will do as a group too. Agil and Diabel agreed with him, they were all very committed to their group and to their training, and even volunteered to help the new recruit understand how they did things.. Godfrey was indeed happy to see a group truly united, not like his last group at all.

Godfrey's training would start bright and early in the morning. He looked like he actually was looking forward to it. Diabel did not wand to spoil the surprise so he kept quiet about what the training was like. They all knew it was a day the man would not easily forget.

Godfrey was out bright and early since both Agil and Diabel understood the training regiment they only need Asuna to supervise while she got to her own training. Godfrey had to train with Kirito and Kirito took his training very seriously. They began hunting a few dozen monsters and Kirito told him a few things to improve. Godfrey took to the training like a fish to water. The others considered him a freak because he actually wanted to do a lot more that he was asked. The two got through the initial training and explanations of the regiment after the 30th monster or so. The rest they simply hunted monsters and by the afternoon they have killed a few hundred monsters, unlike Diabel he knew that the col earned was to make the group stronger, and Godfrey was more than willing to help the group.

Asuna prepared a very nice picnic, as long as you did not ask where the meat came from. Salad, steaks, fruit juices and a package for each. Kirito had managed to do more than getting a good price on their equipment, while they were all asleep he took the equipment and went to the blacksmith. The blacksmith was a rather friendly young lady by the name of Lizbeth. He asked her to repair it, but seeing the damage sustained Lizbeth asked how in the world did they manage to do so much damage to their gear.

"We are the Knight of the Blood Oath, training and preparing for the fight with floor bosses tend to be dangerous, hence why I asked to repair our gear." Lizbeth could not believe her luck. This group was actually real, and they were actually serious about clearing floors. "Say, Kirito was it, how about if I do some upgrades to the equipment instead. Think your group leader might be interested in making me the blacksmith for the group. When you become an official guild, I can really get more practice out of my skills."

Kirito told her that if he was impressed with the quality of her work, he could not think a reason to deny her joining the group. "In that case better get your leader here soon, cause I am going to make this gear the envy of all other groups." She took the stuff to the back of her shop, and after two hours she even managed to improve his armor stats. Kirito sent her an invitation immediately. Lizbeth could not believe that he was the leader. He told her to make some standard gear and give it to him, then meet him at a place he designed in the afternoon.

She, of course, did just that, and Kirito placed the standard gear besides each of their beds, no one noticed the difference. Till Lizbeth showed up with w cart full of gear. "Kirito, why did you have me bring this stuff here?" Lizbeth was clearly confused as to his decision. "People I have a small confession to make, the gear you are wearing is not your usual gear, it is gear I asked Lizbeth to make as replacement gear so we would not miss our training."

Godfrey was the only one who asked a question, "Commander, but where is the gear we had the day before, I bought it with a lot of hard work, please don't tell me you threw it away,sir." Lizbeth was happy to know Kirito was indeed the leader. "Actually you have our blacksmith here to thank. She took the old gear and decided that instead of just repairing it, she would do that and did some very impressive upgrades to it. It's in the cart be sure to thank her as you pick up your gear, it is labelled so don't worry."

The group loved their upgraded gear, and thanked Lizbeth, who was so happy to know that they like it, she was feeling rather proud of her work. "Kirito, why did you do this for us? I am happy you did, but there must be a reason why you did this." Kirito smiled seeing that he could not hide anything from Asuna. Kirito explained that they were only missing a public relations guy, and the guild would have enough people to start officially.

"The other reason is that after tomorrow's training. We will be going after the third-floor boss. After we defeat that boss, we will go back to floor one and register our group as an official guild. I think our public relations guy is going to be there. Unless some know that Argo the rat moved to another floor?" Asuna said that Argo was primarily an info broker. Kirito said that with her information network it would be a breeze for her to deal with any trouble their guild might unintentionally get into with other groups and guilds.

The group was really happy that they would finally be recognized as a guild. But deep down, Asuna wondered how in the world did Kirito manage to get a hold of so much extra col? The registration fee was by no means cheap, she had figured that it would take several months of hunting in a higher floor to gather enough col. Seeing as this was not going to let her sleep, she decided to ask him.

She went to the hotel room he WS staying at, but he was not there. She tried using her location function, but it was showing that he was out on a field. Why in the world would he be hunting out all alone, Asuna began to worry that he was going to overwork himself. She decided to follow the map directions and see what he was up to.

Kirito needed to work off some stress and what better way than combat. The monsters at such level were hardly any challenge. He simply was killing monsters as soon as they tried to attack him. He had cleared two fields already and was in his third. He had finally finished when he heard Asuna call out to him. He simply waited for her to get near.

"Kirito, why are you monster hunting alone? You need to rest you have Lizbeth's training and a floor boss tomorrow. Also, where will the extra col come from to pay the registration fee?" Kirito put away his sword and told her to relax. "The extra col is coming from my own account, I am using col I made during my time in Beta." It was a lie of course, but he could not tell her, that it was col he was paid when he was working as the Black Knight.

Asuna seems to relax a little after she heard that. This made her feel that at the very least he was not doing anything reckless, she often found herself worrying about how much risk he was taking, always taking the brunt of the aggro during the floor boss fights, working harder than anyone would expect him to. But the thing she did not notice was the fact that her worrying was caused by something she had not noticed. She had begun to really care about would probably say that she was already in love, but Asuna was not letting herself admit it.


	7. Chapter 7

I do not own Sword Art Online in any format, this is fan fiction.

The registration was done in the traditional way. Kirito signed the paperwork, and the entire castle was notified. The Order of the Blood Oath was now officially recognized. The staff also told him that since his was the only one to date that established the guild following the registration procedure to the letter, his guild would get a guild uniform, designed or chosen by the members. Kirito knew about fashion, as much as a wolf knew about deep sea diving, which is to say nothing at all.

Asuna jumped at the chance and decided to make the uniform based on the image of a Knight templar, white to signify purity and red highlights to signify the blood oath. Every member agreed on the design but Kirito said that the day he wore so much white, it would be for his funeral. So she made his the opposite red with white highlights. He hated it already, but he was not dumb enough to tell her that. The entire guild marched out of the building in their new uniform. The people around them could only stare.

"Now we return to the combat fields for Lizbeth to do her training under our esteemed vice commander." The other members wished her good luck, she was going to need it. If training to be a blacksmith was tough, after this being a blacksmith would be a sheer joy. They would have to quite literally pull her out away from it from now on. 750 monsters, that is how many she had to kill alone. In reality, it was her own fault,she was saying how she was a master macer, and that she should be an officer like Asuna.

Asuna clearly did not take well to empty boasts. She pushed her harder than anyone and then some. The floor was practically devoid of monsters and when Kirito saw her fall down on the ground, he decided to walk up to them. "So Asuna, how is are blacksmith doing? Any progress?" Asuna smiled and looked at Lizbeth. "We are about half way done." Lizbeth could not believe the reason she was actually letting her rest was so the monsters would reset.

"Good, you have a couple of hours, then we hit the floor boss." Lizbeth wanted to complain that she would need her rest, but the look in his eyes told her that he was not kidding, if she said anything she would more than likely be told to wait for the guild to finish the boss by themselves,and the next day she would have her training double of what she had done. She decided instead to get off her butt and finish the training already. Deep down she wanted to see Kirito fight.

It really seemed that all the floor bosses were indeed people he once called friends and some hab been close enough to call family. The guy who was the boss they were fighting was, in fact, the guy who had trained Kirito when he started in the royal guard. Even then he could never figure how something that looked like the child if a horse and a bull could be that could be that clumsy. His fighting style revolved around chaos, you simply could never tell where the next attack would come in, he almost looked like he was drunk, in reality, he indeed was a heavy drinker, but thank goodness he looked like he had not had a drink in a while, or the entire guild would be dead in a matter of minutes.

The way he looked he was more pissed than anything, and he simply would not say a single word, only his hateful glare and the tears in his eyes told the real story. He had loved her like she was his own daughter, and probably wished for her and Kirito to marry and form a family, with kids he would one day call his grandchildren, but those dreams were pretty much destroyed by the boy he trained into the warrior he was now. He would Swy no word for what word could he say to the man who made him feel so betrayed.

Kirito getting tired of seeing him act like he was, he dashed in and killed the floor boss with a move they were not expecting. He slashed downward and the air around the blade caught fire, and ,a large wave of fire in the shape of the slash went forward and incinerated the floor boss, then the wind behind it, cutting the floor boss to pieces. The others were completely speechless. The floor boss had been defeated, and if you could see her, Hel was smiling like she was very happy.

Asuna saw the attack and she could also see Urd laughing. She quickly asked her what was so funny? Urd said that kind of destruction usually made Kirito's sword very happy. Hel was not known to like showing mercy to her enemies, and the sheer viciousness of the attack made her smile, she was always concerned that spending so much time with Asuna, had made Kirito go soft. Good thing this attack showed her that simply was not the case.

Agil looked at the space where the floor boss had been standing, he could hardly believe it. Three health bars cut down in a matter of seconds. Diabel was simply proud that their commander was simply that tough, and Lizbeth realized that as tired as she was, Kirito probably trains a lot harder, to beagle to pull off an attack like that.

When Kirito activated the way to the next floor he got a message he was not expecting, it was from the Red King. 'To my loyal Black Knight, I send you the key to your old castle, now that you have a growing guild you will need it, keep up the good work.' Signed the Red King. Asuna looked at him hold a key in his hand. "Kirito what is that?" Kirito held the key for everyone to see. It had a number on it, the number was 25. "We won our very own guild headquarters. But there is a catch... It's on the 25th floor."

"Well who cares, we will reach that floor before too long! You all saw how our leader beat that boss. Now we train, recruit and make our guild one the best there is, and make the other floor bosses fear our strength." Kirito could only think that Diabel sure loved to make speeches. Maybe it was not such a bad idea to have him head the public relations of the guild. They all walked through the portal, only to see that a group of monsters was ready to ambush them.

"And people say monsters are not sociable, look, guys, we have a welcoming party." Kirito saw as several of the guilds just could not believe their luck. Kirito and the guild took care of the ambush quickly, but not that happy. All except Kirito wanted a hot meal, a bath, and a bed. They walked toward the first town and they were greeted by the town guard. They were asked if they needed anything? Lizbeth told them exactly what they needed and the guards gave them directions to where to go.

The manager of the local hotel welcomed him, it was rather strange for the others, till Kirito explained that they were a registered guild with their own assigned headquarters. The manager probably knew also that they were the guild that defeats all the floor bosses so far. They also got a very nice discount on their room, and food.

During the night Kirito went to look at the fields, and began to solo hunt monsters, Asuna knew that he would so she asked Urd to wake her up so that she could help him. The excuse she used was that otherwise, the EXP from those monsters would simply go to waste. Urd called it some alone time with her partner's future husband, which in turn made Asuna blush. 'Urd, seriously we don't even know if he even likes me! Or maybe he is already married for all we know." Urd rejected both notions one if he did not like her, she would not be with her at the moment. He did go throw a lot of trouble with her to help earn the right to be her partner. Second, she asked if he was married where is the wife then?

'Honestly, if he was married we could see it on quite clearly by Hel's own mood. I happen to know she secretly loves him too.' Asuna asked what did she mean by that too part. Urd clarified by asking if she did not love him then? Kirito was far too busy slashing monsters to even notice that someone was actually watching him. Hel, on the other hand, could see them as clear as day. 'Kirito would you mind stopping your attacks on the lizardman for a bit and look behind you,' Kirito said that in a second, he was about to beat him. The supposed Lizardman slapped him clear across the face when he said that.

The supposed lizardman was actually a very lean lizard woman and she clearly was offended when Kirito called her him. She was not going to let the hairless ape get away with that kind of insult, so, in the end, Kirito had to really fight this monster, because she was not trying to kill him anymore, she was trying to cut off his family jewels. Asuna saw the way the monster slapped him, and she figured that if she was insulted enough to do that, Kirito was going to need some help, so she came out of hiding and ran to help him.

"Don't you know better than not to insult a lady? I mean look at her, the long eyelashes, the makeup, even the silk gloves, give me a brake this is clearly a very refined lady and you think she was a guy all along?" Kirito simply had to ask right at that moment, who was she really helping here, him or the lizard? Of course, she was helping him but had to make sure he knew why the monster was so completely pissed off.

The fight was over and even dead the lizard still looked angry as her body broke apart. "Well thank you for the help Asuna, but what are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be asleep by now?" Asuna told him that she was there in case he did something stupid like he did with the lizard woman just now. The two spent a couple of hours fighting monsters and talking about their future plans for the guild, including their changes to the training regiment.

That is when she noticed something odd, it was something that she could not quite see, it was almost transparent but he could tell there was something there. Almost hanging over Kirito, something that was clearly feminine, because she looked like she was whispering in his ear. "Kirito, do you mind telling me what is Hel whispering in your ear?" Kirito looked at her and smile, "Nothing major, she was telling me I need to sleep regular hours, she always is worried about my health."

'See told you she loved him, now are you going to sit there and wait for her to declare her feelings first, or you are going to do something about it!?' Urd clearly didn't want her to wait much longer. But why did she want her to declare her love for him, and so soon? If she did not know any better she would have to say that Urd loved him too. "Kirito that reminds me why did you tell us not to ask where the meat of that meal came from?" Kirito decided to show her instead of just tell her. He took a rather slimy piece of meat from his inventory and threw it at her.

"No reason to tell them I used scavenged meat now is there?" She asked what did he mean by scavenged meat? He explained that sometimes he got some rather nice pieces of meat as an item after killing a monster. So, in other words, she and the others ate a meal made with monster flesh, as the meat in that meal. She threw it away and started to wipe her hands. "Ah, don't be so wasteful, that was a perfectly good frog leg."


	8. Chapter 8

I do not own Sword Art Online in any format, this is fan fiction.

By the time they reached the sixth floor, the guild was a true force to reckon with, and most orange guilds avoided them like they all had the bubonic plague. It was while the guild went on one of their training hunts that they met a group of players in need of help. The guild did what they could and saved them from a bunch of monsters who looked rather upset. Kirito could see that these players had done something to make them really angry. Once they arrived at the town they were staying at, he asked what happened for them to end up in that situation.

Sachi, a very shy member tried to tell him, I was until Asuna told her she had nothing to worry about that he began to be able to talk. "Well our guild was off hunting when we came across what looked like to be a festival, we told our leader that he should not touch anything till we knew what was going on. But we have not eaten anything for a whole day, and he began to eat the food what was there. We tried to stop him, but he ate most of a cake, grilled steaks, and half of all the bread rolls, to make it worse he polished off the jugs of juice. The monsters appeared and chased us all the way till you found us."

Kirito could not believe it, the idiot ate the food that was clearly intended for a traditional monster birthday party. The monster who had this party was thanking his or her family for such a wonderful surprise. Then they found a pig of an invader ate all those things, of course, they would get upset. They clearly were not going to kill the idiot, but even he felt he deserved a proper beating. If he had been the celebrating his birthday, and someone did that, his mother would have burned the idiot to oblivion.

The young man clearly showed no remorse, even then he did not thank them for saving them. He said that a weak looking guild like them should thank them for letting them fight their prey. That is when the members of the guild decided to go back on their hunt, the group was almost out one one of the guild members of the idiot asked what was their guild called. Asuna turned around as she was about to leave. "We are the Knights of the Blood Oath." The entire room could not believe their leader insulted the top guild by calling them weak.

Sachi was not going to stand for it and she demanded that they followed them to apologize. The leader told her she just wanted to do that because she was all hot and bothered because the guy in red looked cute!? Sachi slapped him and began to do something they had not expected. She quit the guild and went out the door!? Their guild did not have many members, and as soon as she did that, a lot of members did the same and followed her example. By the end, the idiot only had two members, and that was because they were too lazy to consider leaving the guild.

Asuna was walking towards the temporary headquarters of the guild when she heard a lot of footsteps behind here. She saw a few people trying to catch up to her. Sachi was by far the quickest and was catching her breath in front of her. "Do you people need something I must be something urgent if you are all in such a hurry..." Sachi told her they needed to apologize for what their former leader did. Asuma told her there was no need, Kirito would have helped even if they never thanked him.

"But what do you mean former leader?" Sachi was going to answer but a guy named Michael decided to answer first. "We got sick and tired of the way the moonlit black cats had to basically worship him to get to do anything productive. She wants to apologize, but the rest of us want to join.. If we do not get serious about clearing floors we will be stuck in here forever, I have a wife and family I need to get back to."

Asuna told them their training was nothing to sneeze about. Sachi simply answered that being trapped in a death game tends to motivate some people to try harder like it did with Kirito. The group was welcomed to enter the temporary headquarters of the Knights of the Blood Oath. Kirito told them only those that pass the initial training and swore the blood oath would wear their colors. Asuna was surprised that hr said that. Kirito told her he actually heard what they were talking about outside the door.

"Well, it seems we have three new members to our guild. I will train Sachi and Michael. Asuna can take care of the other new member, who as far as I can remember has not even introduced himself." The man walked over to him and kneeled in front of him. "I am Yami. I will happily wield my hammer for those who fight to save the innocent." Kirito told him to stand and to be sure that is one of the purposes of their guild.

The training began bright and early and much to his surprise Sachi did not complain once about the severity of his training regiment, Michael, on the other hand, did voice a few questions that could be interpreted as petty. He put most to rest telling them the final phase of their training was to participate in the elimination of the current floor boss. That pretty much told him they had to train hard or they would die. The other thing was that hey were indeed serious about clearing floors and beating the death game, which made him smile.

Yami took to the training regiment like a fish to water. Asuna began to contemplate the idea of having him train new recruits when the situation called for it. But for now she was watching him closely, it could be that this guy was a member of the now infamous red guild, laughing coffin. He could simply be saying to see if their guild had any weaknesses and also waiting for their guild to acquire enough wealth to make it a worthwhile prey.

All would prove to be incorrect, Yami simply loved tough fights and for him being in such a dedicated guild was a dream come true. He hungered the thrill of combat, he wanted to fight tough enemies that are why he was playing the game in the first place. Having been a Beta he also remembered the most successful during the Beta phase of the game and it was no surprise that he was the leader of the guild who cleared so many floors already. The data for the locations of the boss rooms did indeed change, but if he was able to find them alone during the Beta he could easily do it with a guild now.

What Asuna consider a possible traitor was, in fact, a die hard fan of Kirito and his way of doing things. If Kirito had made a guild during the Beta you could safely bet that Yami would join the guild. Thanks to Argo he was able to learn that Kirito was exactly the same as he was during the Beta. When he was in the moonlit black cats the entire time he was there it was tedious if not outright boring. But now he felt like he was finally in the guild he was meant to be.

The floor boss, no longer as surprising as before, was indeed and old friend of his. Kirito fought him as the boss accused of being a traitor for helping the invaders, questioning if the one loyal Black Knight would do as he was doing? Kirito could only glare at the floor boss as he received the final hit from Sachi and she received a brand new weapon. Everyone who had joined Sachi, Yami and Michael swore the oath and each saw as their uniform appeared on them. It was a happy occasion as they opened the portal towards the next floor.

The strange thing was that on previous floors they always had a band of monster tries to ambush them, Kirito called it the welcoming party. But on the sixth floor, there was no monster ambush, not even a few trying to take advantage of a supposedly tired guild. Asuna was the fist to say the monsters were actually learning. They would have to be seriously dumb after the way the guild beat all those other welcoming parties, and even more if the angry glare from Kirito was something to go by.

Kirito was particularly angry because he secretly considered those welcome parties as such a welcome. For it to be missing it made him feel like the monsters on this floor did not even care to try and fight him.

The entire guild decided yo continue training and improving their skills, Kirito was quite happy to see how dedicated they were. He was training till he saw someone who fit the profile of a red player in the murderers guild. True enough he was laughing like a maniac, through a rather thick hooded cloak. He decided to follow him , something about him screamed that they were out to kill someone, as he began to follow the red player began to walk a little faster, and it seems that he was close to his victim.

It turns out the only intended victim was himself, the group of red players simply wanted to make a name for themselves. Killing the leader of the best guild was clearly a way to accomplish that. They figured he was just some brat that was named leader our of pity, or maybe because the real leader wanting the punk to use the EXP bonus that went with the title of guild master.

The group was soon to learn that Kirito was not someone to mess with, but they would not live long enough to put their new found knowledge to good use. Kirito's mission was never actually abandoned. He was always on the look out for red players, and he would not spare a single one. The Red King had been very clear that he wanted these murderers dealt with.

The idiots even wasted precious time making insulting remarks. That time would be better spent writing their last will and testament, cause not one of then 20 red players was going to make it out of that ambush alive. He pulled his sword and while concentrating really hard his clothes seemed to turn completely black, and his eyes lost all light in them, he gave them a cold stare as the first idiot tried to rush in and killed him, thinking he would be an easy kill.

Kirito sliced that moron into three large chunks and finally broke into a thousand pieces. Leaving nothing but a group of stunned red players. "You friggin monster!? You just killed him and you don't even look bothered by it!? If you kill someone here, his brain gets baked out there!? Don't you know that!?"

Kirito looks at him and did not bother to answer, he simply looked at him as if he had done the most natural thing in the world. This pissed off 10 of the red players and as they rushed him, he began to slaughter each and every single one of them. "Honestly how can you kill them and feel no remorse!? And your cursor is not even orange!? What the hell us going on here!?" Kirito just stood there and decided to simply flip them off.

Eight more red played died and the last one was pretty much pissing himself as he saw Kirito smile. "Why would I feel anything about killing killers. You knew that killing people here would cause them to die in the other world!? You knew this and still killed them!? Don't come crying because someone can kill you without any problem at all. I am just taking out the garbage!? And guess what that garbage is you and those like you that just died!? Take this to hell and tell the ferryman to take out his big boat, cause I will not stop till every one of you motherfucking red players goes to see him!?"

The last player died screaming for mercy, but he found none. Kirito put his sword away and looked at a tree on the far side of the field. "Hope you enjoyed the show, PoH!?" Kirito left and as his armor returned to normal he could swear he heard someone laughing like a maniac. "I sure did, Kirito, and what a wonderful show it was!?"


	9. Chapter 9

I do not own Sword Art Online in any format, this is fan fiction.

The guild woke up bright and early the next day, as they began to travel to the next floor. The guild began to hear rumors that someone has butchered a large group of red players. The strange thing was that the people who were talking about it did not feel sad, or even bothered by it at all. They felt safer and able to go out of the town and do some hunting or gathering resources. Like as soon as these red players died, they felt like they could live their lives in peace if only until the next group of red players appeared.

The seventh floor was actually very relaxing for some strange reason, maybe it was the flowers by the roadside, or the odd animal seen in the wood, or maybe it was the occasional bird singing. Kirito told them that they needed to find a building to make their temporary headquarters. Asuna quickly reminded him that if this floor was like those before. The first town would already have a building assigns as their headquarters.

The guild was small in numbers but they were definitely a power to reckon with. So far they had been the only guild to clear as many floors, which in turn made them some sort of heroes to some and celebrities to others. Kirito was the only one that actually hated all the attention he was getting. Some girls even tried to sneak into his bedroom. If Asuna's reaction was anymore obvious, she would go from lightning flash Asuna, to Asuna the jealous wife.

She practically told them that if anyone and she meant anyone sneaks into Kirito's bedroom that person would see hell in their lifetime. Some of the guild members complained that instead of threatening, they should just go to a temple, pay the fee and make it official. This made Asuna and Kirito blush twelve shades of red. It was clear that Kirito was at least not opposed to the idea,but for some reason he was waiting for her to make the first move.

Kirito watched as the entire guild pretty much encouraged him to take the risk and at least ask her out on a date. He evaded that by saying that training came first. Diabel even joked that maybe Kirito liked men, that was put to rest in a hurry by Asuna giving him garbage collection and toilet cleaning duty for a solid week. "It you are going to have a flithy mind maybe this will help you clean it."

The fact is that Asuna did love Kirito, but at this moment in time, they both did not even have a permanent home. She wanted to at least earn enough col to be able to purchase a decent place with him. I guess deep down she wanted to secure the ability to secure a home first, and then she would gladly marry him, but do so with a lot of stress taken care of.

Kirito enjoyed his time hunting and training, but the thing that was in his mind was the last ambush. PoH had been there looking as 20 of his guild tried and failed to kill him. He might be more than a bit upset about this. This could also mean since they failed to kill him, they would eventually try to kill some of his guild members instead. The last thing was how to explain it to the others about how his status icon did not change color even though he could injure and even kill red players. You would at least expect it to turn orange, but it was always green.

He knew that the Red King had given him this mission and his word was law in Aincrad. Had he not been given this mission he would still be able to spend time with his family, he missed his mother something awful, and his sister would be getting closer to controlling her flame, he secretly hoped that his sister was not a floor boss, if she was that fight would be very painful for him. In the end he figured he would use the self defence excuse the Red King told him to use.

"When asked tell them that since it is in self defense Aincrad law permits you to kill the person trying to kill you. It would be a matter of self preservation. " Kirito bowed to the king and promised he would say that if necessary. It had been a long time since his last audience with the king. He did however remember every single excuse he was ordered by him to use as the situation called for.

Asuna had gotten pretty good at hiding her presence, but still she figured the reason for Kirito not sensing her must be because he was too busy dealing with the ambush. Their icons showed that the players attacking Kirito were red players in other words player killers. Kirito was clearly winning against one when he did something that surprised even her.

Kirito slaughtered them all, and he did it like it was nothing at all. There was no hesitation or mercy involved, he simply killed them one after the other. Asuna was even more amazed as she noticed his icon was still green. It should have at least turned red if not dark orange. He had killed quite a large number of them.

Asuna left and decided to ask him another time about his reason to kill a player,and about the obvious bug with his icon. She knew that the man she loved knew that killing a player, would also cause that person to die in the real world. She believed that he would not do such a thing. Clearly she needed an explanation for his heartless actions.

Kirito headed towards their temporary headquarters, which were where the sleeping quarters where the guild members slept. As he walked over to the entrance to the building, he saw that Asuna had been waiting for him. "Kirito mind telling me why you killed those players? You could have knocked them out and tied them up to be given to the Iron Palace Prison. So why did you kill them and what is the deal with your icon? It did not change colors."

Kirito knew that he should have done a perimeter scan before he began fighting the scum. The situation however would not allow him to do that. "Self Defense is allowed by Aincrad law. I committed no violation of the law so my icon would not change since I did nothing immoral. The time I spent trying to detain them would give them enough time for reinforcements to arrive."

" Or would you rather see me die instead of a band of killers. You know as well as I do they would have to kill several players for their icon to turn that shade of red. " Asuna of course told him that she was happy that he survived the ambush, but it simply was disturbing for her to see him kill players like he did.

" This place is not some game where we have fun, it is a battle to live or die if we fail. I do not take it easy on monsters and much less on player killers like them. " Kirito walked into the building leaving Asuna to think on his words. Only Urd told her she needed to go inside and sleep before she caught a cold interrupted her meditation on Kirito's words.

Deep down she knew Kirito was right show mercy to those bastards was practically committing suicide. But she could not help to imagine the families of those players being told that their relative was dead. Use told her the same thing would happen to the families of the victims and these killers did not let these thoughts stop them from killing.

'Urd why must you be so harsh. People died by his hands.' She did not want to admit it but it was certainly a frightening sight to see. 'You think I am harsh, maybe you should ask Kirito to lend you his blade for a while. I am realistic and Hel is sadistic. I imagine she was actually signing from the sheer joy of killing those red players.'

Kirito was busy cleaning his sword and speaking to Hel. 'Kirito it really bother you so much to have blood of those creatures on me? I only wish the fun had not ended so quickly. How can something so pathetic kill other people, but be unable to put up a decent fight?'

Kirito told her that he was making sure that she was well taken care off. As to those players one or a dozen of them dead meant next to nothing to him. He wanted the actual practice of a murder to be associated with the fear of the punishment for the act. If they feared the punishment enough it would serve as a deterrent.

'But it would also cut down on my fun. ' Kirito decided to switch topics. "Speaking of fun, how long do you think before we can continue our new visualisation training? I imagine growing in power would make you pretty happy."

' True enough, but you are still too distant and cold to truly synchronize with me. How can a dragon be so cold? I will never figure that out. ' Asuna got closer to him and wondered what was his conversation with the spirit of his sword was about.

"Kirito do you have anything planned for tomorrow night?" This made him stop what he was doing and looked at her for a second. "Not that I can recall, why do you ask?" Asuna looked like she was having trouble saying what she had in mind. Hel to tell him that it was more than likely that she wanted to go out on a date.

"Well, since you asked I was thinking that maybe you would like to go out with me, look at some shops, spend the day with me, but if you have something else to do I will understand. " Asuna told him that indeed she would love to spend the day with him. 'Here I was having problems asking him out and he figures it out and asks me out himself. Talk about lucky!'

For some reason he finished daily training and went back towards the town. He got a very nice glass of juice, the thing looked kind of out of placed it was orange juice of all things. When he was asked he told Asuna that it was relaxing to be able to drink a cold drink after a long workout.

She asked if she could try some of his, and he so no reason to deny it. It was only after she took the small drink from it that Urd began to tell her something. 'You know sharing the same glass is what some people would call an indirect kiss.' She handed him back his juice and thanked him for sharing it with him. She was blushing bright red as they both entered the guild's temporary headquarters.

As it turns out the date was almost everything Asuna had hoped for. She did spend an entire day with him, and they did eat together and talked about things they both wanted to do in the guild and for themselves. The only problem was the dancing, they did dance sort of. If you called fighting two dozen monsters back to back dancing.

Urd and Hel were having different reactions. Urd could not believe that Kirito would even train during a date. Hel was simply happy to have some action in her otherwise boring day. The day was finished by Kirito eating a sandwich she gave him and he was eating one herself. "I don't remember the shops selling this kind of food."

Asuna smiled at him seeing he enjoyed the sandwich," They don't, I can cook you know. " Kirito had just finished eating the sandwich when he heard that." Kirito thanked her for the extra effort in cooking for him. "You are going to make some lucky guy really happy. I wonder when will I meet the lucky guy who gets to call you his wife."

Asuna got up and began to walk to her room, "Fool, like I would make the extra effort for anyone other than you. Can you be that oblivious and not see how much I love you?" She talked to herself till she finally fell asleep.

The next morning they decided to continue to train and bring in some new materials for their equipment maintenance. It was decided that as soon as the guild members finished their experience to the next level, they would eliminate the floor boss as soon as they did and the maintenance on their equipment was complete.

Diabel told the other members as Kirito was walking to the small group. "I did not want to believe it, but it is practically official. Aincrad had some orange criminal guild's, but never this. I got this from an information broker." Kirito could only glare at the paper as he saw it. It was a recruitment pamphlet for a guild called Laughing coffins. "So it has finally happen the murderer's only guild. The first red player guild in Aincrad. Things will get bloody and fast."

PoH seems to have been inspired by the way Kirito killed the last batch of player killers. Somehow the man even made a small Idol of what he looked like as the black Knight. Only it was made to look a lot taller and more muscular in appearance. The figure was supposedly the leader of the guild. Kirito wanted to rip the piece of paper to pieces, this was nothing if not insulting to him.

In the end he did not he simply handed back to Diabel and told him to be on the look out for mention of the red guild and it's members. To tell the other guild members to do the same, but do not attack them. This was pure info gathering, and nothing more. "We will deal with these killers eventually right now we need to know their chain of command."

"I hear and obey, leader I will keep my ears open for this information. When we know enough let me be with the group that deals with this killers. The murder of the innocent must not go unpunished." Kirito walked over to the main meeting room table and sat down on his usual seat. "It seems I simply can not have a single day off without something unpleasant happening."


	10. Chapter 10

I do not own Sword Art Online in any format, this is fan fiction.

The day finally came and the floor boss was not someone he ever wished to fight. It was not like the previous times it was more personal. The previous fights had been with old friends, but this time, it was a woman he once considered his own aunt. This woman had taught him how to fight since the moment he could hold a blade.

Her name was showing as the frozen ice banshee, but her real name was Cassandra. If he did not wish to fight one person it was her. She knew everything he did, but only a thousand times better. When he saw who it was he asked the guild members to wait outside the door, he would keep an eye on the floor boss till the others arrived.

Asuna wanted to tell him there was no need to wait, but having so many members be late would make the fight harder, however deep down she felt that there was some other related reason and it was personal. She did not like it one bit.

As the door closed he put holstered his sword. "_Long time no see, nephew. I began to wonder u what you been up to since you left your post. The other floor guardians had been telling me that you helped the invaders, but deep down I wish it was not true. Even as I met the new black Knight. I hoped that it simply was not true. My nephew, my student turning traitor. _"

Kirito could see the angry expression on her face." _I did not abandon my post, I was given a mission by his majesty. I will not fail the Red King. He wishes me to push these invaders into a force he will be proud of fighting against. I was ordered to inspire and judge them. I am the Black Knight as I have been for so long. I do not expect you to believe me, aunty. But I am sorry but I must defeat you and it does not make me happy, not happy at all. "_

_" Actually it makes me happy to test you like the old days. " _ the two began fighting and Hel kept changing shape to suit his needs. Finally settled for a dual blade form. He was doing enough damage to take off one health bar. It made her smile see that he had not gone soft.

The rest of the guild members showed up, but they were greeted by an angry Asuna. "What took you idiots so long to get here. KIRITO IS FIGHTING THE BOSS ALONE BECAUSE YOU TOOK YOUR SWEET TIME GETTING HERE."

Asuna was clearly pissed, and she was not in the mood for excuses. She told them to join the others follow her. When they walked in they saw Kirito fighting in a way they never saw before. He had a sword in each hand and he was fighting the floor boss to a standstill. Two of the six health bars had been destroyed.

Asuna got to almost see the floor boss smiling for some odd reason. "Come on guys, let's get in there and help Kirito do this thing." they members could not move at first. They had been in awe as they saw their leader fight, but as they heard her words they ran to help him.

Kirito and the guild made short work of the last four health bars and the boss was finally defeated. Kirito had to sit down and drink a potion to recover health and to calm down. Asuna sat down next to him and hugged him, she clearly was worried about him. "Don't you make me worry like that. I don't know what I would have done without you!"

"I see the guild members finally finished their breakfast. Nothing like an after breakfast session of exercise, am I right?" the guild members began to laugh at something they knew it was their leader making a joke. "Come on people, we still got a long way to go before we reach floor 25 and our new headquarters."

They all activated the portal to the next floor and in the days to come if there were any people that did not believe in them, they did now. By the end of the month, they cleared 10 floors and killed 10-floor bosses by that time. Now on the 11th-floor people recognized that the Knights of the Blood Oath were the elites of the elites.

"We are making progress but we have a long way to reach the last floor. " Kirito smiled as he told Asuna." Kirito, there is something I need to ask you. I hope you will not freak out when you hear it. " Kirito looked at her and smiled.

" Kirito, will you marry me? " well this was unorthodox, to say the least." I think it was me who was supposed to say that, Asuna. " She just said that she got tired of waiting for him to say it so she did." Sure thing, Vice Commander Lightning Flash Asuna, I gladly would marry you. "

She did not like they way the answer was so formal, but to hell with it, she was too happy to even glare at him. She kissed him on his lips hard enough to make him stumble and they both fell on the ground. Lizbeth and Sachi were both looked daggers at Asuna. "Guess it is true after all, you snooze you lose." Klein walked towards the town and their newest temporary headquarters.

The ceremony took place in a nearby Chapel and the one thing Kirito knew was that Asuna looked lovely in and later in private out of her wedding dress. Kirito looked quite good in his own suit of armor and Klein looked like he was going to start looking a little green with envy.

The priest went through the normal motions as the couple exchanged vows and rings, he simply said that he declared them husband and wife, that he could now kiss his bride. The couple kissed and the members of the guild cheered or at least the guys did. Lizbeth and Sachi were still staring daggers at Asuna.

The best part was that the boss for that particular floor was an old flame of his, and boy was she fire spitting mad with rage. It was the only time till now that the floor boss did not go after Kirito, her entire focus and drive was on killing Asuna, the hisses and growls that came from her almost Medusa appearance could loosely translate from being called a scarlet woman, to downright whore. The reason why I say almost Medusa appearance is because of two reasons.

Medusa was always mentioned as a proper lady in most game and stories, she was not by the choice of her words, and secondly Medusa would have killed herself before she was seen in a skimpy, revealing form fitting outfit like she was wearing. She did not leave anything to the imagination. Klein even said that he would date her.

The looks that Lizbeth and Sachi were more severe than the ones the floor boss was giving Kirito. Kirito on his part watched as Asuna true to her nickname single-handedly dismantled the floor boss and Urd was particularly happy about it.

They finally made it to the next floor and from there on in it was an established occurrence. They trained for a day of two while the guild trained a few new recruits and equipped better or maintain their current gear. The guild blacksmith mastered her blacksmith skills by how much work Lizbeth was doing.

Asuna mastered her cooking skill, which was something Sachi called unnecessary, to begin with. "I like to be able to cook delicious and healthy meals for my husband. I don't see anything wrong with me expressing my love for him this way."

The red player guilds now did not only worship the Black Knight as a god, the bastards PoH was called the first prophet of the new faith and wrote an actual quote unholy scripture for the followers he received in a nightmare by the Black Knight himself. Which of course were an absolute fabrication and a lie?

Every floor they cleared they would find an ambush of Laughing Coffin or their subsidiary guilds. Kirito killed them all and showed each time the Knights of the Blood Oath was not a guild to mess with.

The only problem was that PoH called his ability to kill a blessing of their God, and seeing how Kirito and his guild cleared all the floor bosses up to the 25th floor so quickly, the cult gained a lot of followers and Kirito really hated that.

The base if you want to be kind and call it a base was in Kirito's words a ruin. Lizbeth told him to cheer up if everyone pitched in the structure could be made livable. Thanks to the large number of players that joined the guild they repaired the place rather quickly. Kirito really hated the cult many of the new recruits joined because they followed the scripture but did not want to be red players.

Some others joined at the chance of killing the false deity. Kirito knew that training so many recruits would leave him both tired and little time to spend with Asuna. He really wanted to spend more time with her, the sex during their short honeymoon was amazing to him, but the fact that he had so many wet behind the ears recruits left him with little time to even make plans for a little love making.

Asuna was also missing being intimate with her husband, it was making her rather quick to anger and some lower monsters actually actively avoided her when she was training new recruits.

The fact is the lack of sex was making them both really frustrated, and the sheer number of new recruits that joined after each floor was cleared was not something to joke about. By the time they reached the 35th floor so quickly showed how much frustrating the situation was for the couple.

By the time they reached the 40th floor the guild was 3,580 members and each was trained to be an elite in their chosen weapon style. Lizbeth, Agil , Diabel, Klein, and Argo became the members of the roundtable Council with Kirito as commander and Asuna as his Second in command.

"Look, guys, I don't want our leaders going postal on me, so I suggest we take a few more recruits than we usually do and honestly let the married couple have a little hanky panky before they both start foaming like a pair of rabid wolves." Kirito and Asuna were glaring at Lizbeth as she placed this particular motion to a vote during their daily Council meeting.

It goes without saying that the motion passed unanimously and Sachi told both to get up go to their room and looked at Kirito with an almost look of begging. "Please, and I mean please screw the ever loving daylights out of your wife before she starts to try and kill us during training."

They couple took the hint but Asuna told her she could handle her quota of recruits for the next two months for making such a comment. The rest of the Council laughed as she was not expecting Asuna to respond like that. You would think she would be happy that she finally gave up on her crush on her husband.

The couple finally enjoyed some time for being together and being in bed together. They made love like their lives depended on in, and as a result, Asuna would find later that she became pregnant with the child of the man she loved.

On the on side she was happy when she found out after she fainted and had fits of nausea after the 45th floor, a player who in fact was a nurse in the other world told her the news. Using her skills as a healer she told the vice-commander that she was two months pregnant.

On the other side, she was not going to participate so much in combat and instead was put in charge of more as she called it administrative duties. As the guild cleared the 50th floor and formed an alliance with the other guilds, who just wanted their chance of being recognized, to be honest, Asuna gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby girl who the couple named Yui.

From that moment of Asuna took care of the administration of the guild and Kirito took care of the actual combat-related matters. She really got used to it during her long pregnancy. Kirito was also the ever doting father to his little girl and the ever romantic husband to Asuna.


End file.
